Hydrometallurgical Recovery of Precious Metals and Copper from Slag and E-Waste
This research community focuses on the chemical extraction and purification of copper, gold, and platinum-group metals from industrial by-products like smelting slag, furnace dust, and electronic waste. The work is driven by the need to recover high-value materials from complex waste streams using acid leaching, solvent extraction, and emerging sorbent technologies.
The core methods involve selective leaching with sulfuric or hydrochloric acid, followed by separation via solvent extraction or adsorption. Recent work emphasizes the use of covalent organic frameworks (COFs) and other porous materials to capture gold and palladium from aqueous solutions, often derived from printed circuit boards. The community also investigates bioleaching mechanisms for oxidizing metal sulfides and pyrometallurgical refining processes for blister copper. Applications center on urban mining, circular economy integration, and the efficient recovery of precious metals from end-of-life electronics and industrial residues.
The largest share of the community's output is found in palladium research (3.1% of all palladium research), followed by gold (2.4%) and platinum (2.3%). Copper contributes the highest paper count within this group, with 6,308 papers, representing 2.1% of all copper research.
The community comprises 26,130 papers, publishing most frequently in Hydrometallurgy, Minerals Engineering, and Analytica Chimica Acta.
Recent work continues to focus on selective recovery of precious metals from e-waste using covalent organic frameworks and photocatalytic methods, alongside studies on the leaching kinetics of furnace cinders and the refining of blister copper.